What you looking for?

Friday, April 20, 2012

I woke up this morning to discover, what is hopefully the last dying flames of this whole thing. If it's not that's fine however this will be the last I'll say about it here because I don't want to feed the fire anymore. I am open to discussion if people want to have mature, intelligent discussion but keep in mind I can, and will, delete posts that don't contribute to that. Or maybe just make fun of you. Both options are entertaining to me. Alright, some highlights and comments after the jump.

So I come across this in my Twitter feed. Basically we get a recap of Gail Simone's side of the story, including her original post. We covered that so we move on to the new comments and how I feel about them.

--It does take a certain degree of nerve and love of a character to cosplay them. Kudos to you!

That is from gallifreygal. Amen sister, I agree. All the more reason to not care what some dude on the internet says about you.

Now the biggy, the thing that bothered me the most, I'm just quoting the whole thing and will address it piece by piece. This is by Gail Simone herself.

--He was insulting people for calling him out at the same time he issued this ‘apology,’ and was repeatedly insulting to me on Twitter.

I don't see it as insulting, I see it as the knee jerk reaction of a person suddenly assaulted by a verbal attack. It wasn't particularly useful to the subject, it wasn't the mature adult thing to do. It wasn't the way to handle it. But YOU Gail Simone hit him first and then your fans hit him (this is what I get from how I read everything anyway). He can't be blamed for trying to get a shot off when he's getting jumped by a gang of people.

--I am unaware of any attempt to ‘reach out’ to me, but I don’t care in the slightest. Yes, you do, you brought attention to it. He writes for a 'men's interest' (whatever that is, I agree with you there Linkara, but I'm also addressing the issue). He is not a member of our community (comic loving, cosplaying cool people). The Venn diagram of their demographic and our demographic probably don't overlap at all, and if they do, where they overlap: those people probably don't care. Had you not brought attention to it, it probably would have sunk into obscurity.

--It’s not me he needs to apologize to,

He doesn't NEED to apologize to anyone. He had a content deadline, Avengers is big right now and as I found out, cosplaying is super easy to find on Google (I'm 10 weeks out on cosplay Wednesdays without even trying). But he did apologize and sincere or not he at least put in the effort, he got quotes, he brought attention to a great non profit organization, he showed cosplay he liked. But if there's anyone he SHOULD apologize to it's you. What he said about the people in the pictures, that's business, but what he said to you and your fans was personal. Therefore you probably deserve an apology the most.

--it’s the cosplayers in question and the cosplaying community, who already get enough shit from crappy, unfunny jerk website as it is.

They do get a lot of shit but they also dress in costumes. I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying if you're going to do that, do it in public and take pictures someone somewhere will say something and it probably won't be flattering. That should not stop anyone from doing it however.

--I have no beef with what he said to me, it was just unfunny insults after I told him he was full of shit. It’s the people he attacked for no reason who deserve an apology.

No one is ever entitled to an apology, but yes I agree. They also got one, one he didn't have to give and as I said I'm sure the 'men's interest' (whatever the hell that is) field doesn't give two shits about us cool kids so they probably weren't pressuring him to make one.

Finally we have this from clownyprincess (I love your website btw, I know that sounds sarcastic in this context but, seriously...)

--...leaving the article up does not paint a very convincing portrait of remorse.

You're right, it does not. However because of this nonsense that page is getting hits. Probably waaaaaaay more hit's than that lame ass article would have gotten otherwise. Hit's generates revenue and revenue pays his bills. It's sad but simple. So in this crazy world of internet profiteering you can have an offensive article and the apology for that offensive article and they can both co-exist without taking sincerity from each other and both can make money simultaneously. Which is what all this has done. It's been great for his website.

Finally I want to say this: I've been really, really hard on Gail Simone. I like her, her Twitter is fun to read (@GailSimone), I enjoyed her run on Deadpool and Birds of Prey. She seems like a good person and that's probably why this hit so close to home. If you're a good person and someone attacks your friends you fight back and that's what she did. But I would expect better from someone in the cool kids group, especially some one like her and here's why:

--I love you so much, Gail Simone. What a douchebag that guy is! >_

You, Gail Simone, have people that you may or may not personally know who love you and look up to you. They look to you for social guidance and when they see this behavior or hear a call to arms they listen and they follow because they care for you. You didn't ask for this power but it was given to you by the people and since we're all comic book fans here we know the lesson Peter Parker taught us about power. That's why I'm being so hard on you. That's why I had hoped you'd be the bigger person and elevate this beyond name calling. But you didn't and here we are. However I'm still the most disappointed in you Linkara, Power Rangers...seriously.